


The Sun Never Set

by insertusernamehereok



Category: Exalted (Roleplaying Game), ゼロの使い魔 | Zero no Tsukaima | The Familiar of Zero
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:35:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23922451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insertusernamehereok/pseuds/insertusernamehereok
Summary: Louise the Zero, resident failed mage, succeeds in summoning a perfectly normal familiar with a perfectly normal rune.She is a Void mage. This is impossible.The Sun takes note. Maybe there’s some hope yet for this odd age of strange sorceries...
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	The Sun Never Set

Louise was miserable, and evidence pointed towards that being her natural state. Which, mind, wasn’t going to stop her, as her own near-constant irritation was just another source of itself. Yes, if there is one thing that Louise can be said to have mastered, it is being in a foul mood.

This mood was not helped by the situation at hand. The Spring Familiar Summoning Ritual. An important (according to some, the most important) event in a mage’s life. It was also, blessedly, easy and simple, the only concern for a young mage being whether or not their familiar would be cool.

At least, it  _ should _ be easy. Louise, who is more or less a mage by technicality, fears that it will not be so for her. Seeing as the only recognition she’s been given is ‘recognized threat to her surroundings,’ she has good reason to be concerned. Aside from theory, at which she is excellent, Louise is a complete failure, a complete  _ zero _ , of a mage. Even if she’ll never admit her insecurities to anyone. Ever.

All of this stress, which you must understand is concentrated at high density within her small form, was compounded by something that made her heart skip a bit, in an entirely negative, heart attack sort of way.

She would be booted out if she failed to summon a familiar.

Of course, she had tried to argue, but she was shut down. While she is provably a mage, as the explosions could attest, there’s simply little point in training her. After all, she can’t do anything but explode, which is hardly useful outside of a suicide attack. The school put up with it for this much, due to her connections, but if she cannot do even this, one of the most basic rituals on the curriculum, then it would be over.

Which is how she finds herself in the present moment. All the other students had summoned their familiars, some impressive, some not. It falls to Louise to be the last to summon, obviously. Because fucking Kirche von Zerbst can’t keep her stupid mouth shut. And as she begins her prayer, the future faces twofold paths. 

She would succeed, and summon a boy from another world, who would be Gandalfr, standing at the right hand of god. They would face a grand, exciting adventure full of war, horror, and death. Excitement is rarely for the faint of heart. 

Or, she would fail. Humiliated, she would be approached by a creature most foul, a mutilated soul of a soul of a soul from the blasphemous depths of the forgotten king of all things. A green sun would spark, illuminating the Void, irrevocably shattering her world and self, dragging her down to degeneracy and sin, as all infernal things are dragged, all in the name of reclaiming that which never should have been.

_________________________________________________

The Sun beats down on her, but it’s a welcome pain. It serves as a distraction and focus all at once, dragging her mind away from the future, past, and present jeers, away from the stares, away from the laughter, away from her failings. The Sun judges her, but it neither condemns nor condones. It simply beats down on her like all other things. It accepts her, like it accepts all other things. That’s more than could be said of anything else in her life.

“... Heed my summoning,” Louise says, teeth grit and eyes set in a harsher glare than usual, intent on focusing her ire away from the present and into the ritual. “And bring forth my familiar.”

Now, you have to understand that Louise is easily at the top of the class in theory. She’s great at it, but it could never possibly help her. She’s simply barking up the wrong tree. She cannot perform normal magic, it’s beyond (or, depending on your religious standing, beneath) her. The Essence of the Void suffuses her being, and such is the cause of her problems. She is fundamentally incompatible with common magic. So, of course, the only options the summoning ritual has are to either coalesce into the stranger edges of reality and grasp for someone, or fail to take hold with the incorrect shaping that Louise gives. She cannot summon a normal Familiar. Not a dragon, not a rat, not a thing. It’s impossible.

The field is filled with black smoke and wind, buffeting everyone, concealing the summoner. As expected.

“Another explosion?” coughs a student.

Another laughs. “What did you expect? Zero is Zero, after all.”

Colbert, the teacher, ignores this, squinting through the already clearing air. Slowly, a silhouette takes shape--that of a girl’s, and... something else. Someone else.

“Louise, are you alright?” he calls out.

“Yes, Professor!” Comes the voice from the smoke. “I am fine!” 

And as the smoke clears, it reveals the other figure… a young, Japanese bo--

Wait. That’s not Saito.

The pigeon Louise summoned, dull gray and plump, coos.

Resounding silence. On the one hand, Louise summoned a  _ pigeon _ . On the other, Louise  _ summoned  _ a pigeon. 

Before God or the Devil or whatever higher power that’s taken mercy on her can change its mind, Louise snatches up the pigeon and plants a kiss upon its brow, sealing the ritual, and forming a rune upon its chest. She doesn’t care what the Hell it is, other than the fact that it’s immutable, irrefutable evidence that she isn’t a total failure.

“I! DID! IT!” Louise yells, hugging the protesting pigeon tightly to her chest. Whether she yells this exultation to herself, her peers, her family, or the sun, well, who knows--what is certain, is that she just did something completely and utterly impossible. It simply couldn’t have been done. And yet. And yet! She did it! She! Did! It!

_ Yes, You Most Certainly Did. _

These golden words echo in her skull, interrupting her internal celebration, and she almost loses her focus on not bursting into tears of joy.

_ Perhaps This Age Is Not As Hopeless As I Had First Assumed,  _ the magnificent voice continues.  _ You Always Did Have A Penchant For Proving Me Wrong, ------. _

It spoke with surety, and finality, and familiarity. Louise, even more so than the usual, has no idea what’s going on. Is this it? Has she finally gone crazy? Or, worse--is her success all a dream? All excellent questions worthy of the oncoming panic attack.

_ But Enough Talk. You Have Proven Yourself Worthy. Tread With Mighty Steps, Lawgiver. Let None Find You Wanting Again. _

Then Louise took her Second Breath, and promptly exploded.


End file.
